MEDIA RELEASE PR37996
Global Financial Integrity Launches "G20 Transparency" Campaign Calling on World Leaders to Fight
Poverty, Protect Human Rights
WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ --
Global, grassroots petition drive seeks 100,000 signatures
in six months
Global Financial Integrity (GFI) launched its "G20 Transparency" campaign
today, an international grassroots sign-on drive to collect 100,000
signatures on a petition calling for greater transparency in the global
financial system. The petition will be delivered to Canadian Prime Minister
Stephen Harper prior to the G20 meeting in Toronto at the end of June.
site devoted to the campaign where supporters may read and sign the petition,
which will be available in Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish. The
Web site will also allow supporters to share the petition with others via
peer-to-peer and social networking tools.
The petition states:
Research shows that each year US$1 trillion in illicit money flows out of
developing countries - roughly ten times the amount of official aid money
that is received. The World Bank and others have cited these estimates
repeatedly. Illicit money flows are facilitated by an opaque financial system
comprised of tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions. Illicit capital outflows
greatly exacerbate poverty and lead to the deaths of millions of people.
Illicit financial flows constitute a human rights problem of huge
proportions.
The world's largest economies - the G20 nations - will meet in Toronto on
June 26-27, 2010. They have an unprecedented opportunity to institute changes
that will create a transparent global financial system that is open,
accountable, fair and beneficial for all.
"We intend to send a clear and resounding message that the world wants
G20 leadership to recognize that human rights and international financial
integrity are intimately linked," said GFI director Raymond Baker. "Where
poverty is pervasive, civil, political, and economic rights often go
unrealized. Today, large outflows of illicit money - many times larger than
all development assistance - greatly aggravate poverty and oppression in many
developing countries."
Gascoigne at +1-202-293-0740 or cgascoigne@gfip.org or Monique Perry Danziger
at +1-202-293-0740.
SOURCE: Global Financial Integrity
CONTACT: Monique Perry Danziger of Global Financial Integrity,
+1-202-293-0740
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